After You've Gone
After You've Gone by Kay Kendall is a story about Walter MacGregor, Wallie for short. Why Wallie, she is named after her father. She is a 23-year-old girl in 1923 who has a great sense of adventure, she loves Sherlock Holmes stories. She came across a picture of a man and has asked her father, a judge, about the man. One day a man comes to the door asking to see her father. This man turns out to be her Uncle Rory, the man in the picture. Rory is her father's brother and they have been estranged for over 20 years.
Rory tells Wallie that he is afraid that someone is trying to kill him. When an unfortunate accident claims Rory's life, Wallie is determined to investigate. She does not believe that it was an accident but that Rory was murdered. With the clues she has dug up, she goes on a day trip with her Aunt Ida. Aunt Ida is her deceased mother's sister. She is a formidable woman who is constantly correcting Wallie for her behavior. A young woman in the '20s has a certain way she should behave. She does agree to go on the day trip to Galveston. She wants to find out about the people that her Uncle Rory worked for.
She finds that the people that Uncle Rory worked for and hung out with are pretty dangerous. There are gangsters, Al Capone is mentioned, flappers and bootleggers as the country is in the midst of Prohibition. Wallie has now put herself and her overbearing aunt in a dangerous situation. Mixed into all of this is two young men who are pursuing her. So this story is a thriller, as she may be in danger, a romance, which young man will she chose, and Wallie's journey from an ingenue to a young woman who is courageous.
This book is a prequel to the Austin Starr Mysteries, sets up the relationship between Wallie and her granddaughter. I found that this book was easy to read and fun, Wallie has a great sense of humor and a predilection for adventure and danger. I enjoyed the relationship between her and her Aunt Ida. Propriety and adventure do not often go together but in this book, it works. I really enjoyed reading After You've Gone. I think that the title works well also as it is after Rory is gone that Wallie learns about a family member who had not been part of her young life.
